How can therapy help me?
- Attaining a better understanding of yourself, your goals and your vaules
- Developing skills for improving your relationships
- Finding resolution to the issues or concerns that led you to seek therapy
- Learning new ways to cope with stress and anxiety
- Managing anger, depression, and other emotional pressures
- Improving communications and listening skills
- Changing old behavior patterns and developing new ones
- Discovering new ways to solve problems in your relationships
- Improving your self-esteem and boosting self-confidence
What is therapy like?
Because each person has different issues and goals for therapy, therapy will be different depending on the individual. In general, you can expect to discuss the current events happening in your life, your personal history relevant to your issue, and process new insights gained from the previous therapy session. Depending on your specific needs, therapy can be short-term, for a specific issue, or longer-term, to deal with more difficult patterns or your desire for more personal development.
You will get more results from therapy if you actively participate in the process. The ultimate purpose of therapy is to help you bring what you learn in sessions back into your life. Therefore, beyond the work you do in therapy sessions, I will suggest some things you can do outside of our therapy sessions to support your process.
How do I know if therapy is right for me?
Everyone goes through challenging situations in life, and while you may have successfully navigated through other difficulties you've faced, there's nothing wrong with seeking out extra support when you need it. Therapy can be a place to explore more about yourself and learn how to meet challenges in a different way. You are taking responsibility by accepting where you're at in life and making a commitment to change the situation by seeking therapy. Therapy provides long-lasting benefits and support, giving you the tools you need to avoid triggers, re-direct damaging patterns, and overcome whatever challenges you face.
Risks associated with therapy
Although therapy begins with the hope that your life and relationships will ultimately improve, there is no guarantee that this will occur. Like many things in life, psychotherapy has inherent risks. Often times as individuals begin to explore difficult emotions or events things can begin to feel worse before they get better. Some of these possible risks to you include, but are not limited to, experiencing:
- Disruptions in your daily life that can occur because of therapeutic changes
- Emotional pain due to exploring personal issues and/or family history
- Emotional pain within your current relationships
Does what we talk about in therapy remain confidential?
Confidentiality is one of the most important components between a client and therapist. As a licensed psychologist in the state of California, I am legally and ethically bound to maintain confidentially and normally everything we discuss will be held confidential.
California laws and ethics either mandate, or permit therapists to break client confidentiality under certain circumstances. Some exceptions to confidentiality include situations in which there is reasonable suspicion that any of the following has ever occurred or is occurring now:
- You present a danger to yourself or others
- If there is reason to suspect child abuse (anyone under 18 years old)
- If there is reason to suspect dependent adult abuse
- If there is reason to suspect elder abuse (anyone 65 years or older)
- The court of law orders information from treatment to be released as a part of a legal proceeding
In any of above circumstances, I will make every effort to alert you before releasing confidential information.